THE GENIUS OF JOHN BERGER

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Everytime I read a book that speaks directly to my essence, I hold it within myself, ridiculously possessive of every word and every meaning.
But with some authors, the simple truths that they lay in front of you are so simple and profound that there is an immediate necessity to share it with others and laugh together at our foolishness in having overlooked it for so long.
John Berger is one such. Very philosophical, very interpretive. And very subtle at the same time. He knocks softly on the doors of your consciousness, and does not awaken you with a loud bang.
And so I am sharing here a few jewels of his writings ( Of what little I've read as of now).

"A voice belongs first to a body, then to a language"

"There are moments in painting when it seems that the pretensions are justified"

"Satire is only possible when a moral reserve still exists, and those reserves have been used up. We are too used to the idea of being appalled by ourselves to be able to react to the idea of caricature."

"His pictures are meaningless. But the way in which they are so is significant..... Having the ability to speak, he acted dumb." - ( About Jackson Pollock ).

"Reality should not be confused with scale, only scale has degrees."

"Liberated from its role as a narrative medium, painting, of all Arts, is closest to philosophy."

"If a lie is accepted as truth, the real truth turns the false one into a merely theatrical truth".

Thats it for now. Maybe I will write some lines from Helene Cixous or Baudelaire next. Until then, read more of Berger. You will just not be able to stop :)
  

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